My name is Hannah Griffin, or for the next 18 months, Hermana Griffin! I am serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Madrid, Spain and I will be serving from October 2014- April/May 2016.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Still Hot in Spain, fans sold out!

Hola familia! 7/13/15

What a week. Alright, so let's start with the people we are
teaching.

L, our investigator with the baptismal date, is awesome. So she
has family in her country who are members so she knows quite a bit about the
church. She told us that her family had all been married in the temple. So we
told her there was a temple here and she didn't know that, so we did a tour
with her. So awesome! The spirit was soooo strong!

Temple view from ward building

Turns out, when the temple
in the Dominican Republic was built, she went to the open house. She loved it
and she remembered a lot. She's fabulous. She is trying to change her job now
so she can come to church on Sunday. She just had an interview and she said it
went really well, but they told her she won't hear back for 2-3 weeks. Here's
to lots of praying that she gets it!!!

A is awesome as usual. He is Adventist, so we have quite a few
differences in doctrine, but he is so polite always and genuinely wants to
know. He had a bad day this week and he called us, because he says he has no
other friends here and if anyone could help him, we could he set up 3 appointments
with us this week because he loves studying with us. He's so wonderful!

We met with a new investigator named S. She is amazing. She just
moved here from Venezuela 3 months ago. Her fiancé is a recent convert, but she
never wanted anything to do with the church until Hermanas in Barrio 9 (right
next to Barrio 3) contacted her. I was so close to her my whole time in B3 and
never met her! Anyway, she went to church in B9 with her fiancé and loved it.
So, we met with her this week. We taught the restoration and she loved it. We
left her the introduction of the Book of Mormon to read and she comes back and
read the intro and all the testimonies! She's just the best! So we taught the
plan of salvation and she loved it even more. The spirit was so strong and she
told us that she feels more peace in the church and when she meets with us than
anywhere else! So we invited her to be baptized... The 25th of July. And she
accepted! And she said that is the 6 year anniversary of her and her
boyfriend... And then we realized that her boyfriend just received the
priesthood and can baptize her. Anyway, aside of all this preciousness, she is
really understanding and loving everything. We're a little overwhelmed trying
to cram everything that we need to teach in in time, but I'm not worried. She
is already developing a testimony and has the desire to learn and know more.
Also, she has all the time in the world to meet, which makes things so much
easier for us. Also, did I mention she speaks perfect English... She corrects
me sometimes, which can be slightly embarrassing.

We found a bus that goes to Arganda del Rey, the farthest part
in our area. Normally we take the metro for about 50 minutes... This bus takes
20 minutes. So we took it this week for the first time and we got to Arganda no
problem. On the way back... Not so much. We got off early and ended up on the
side of the highway. We found a park off the highway and walked through it...
Super sketchy, but eventually we made it back to civilization... Just an hour
and a half later. My navigating skills are rusty obviously.

We still can't find a fan... Everywhere is sold out! So we
basically die at night. We wake up just soaked in sweat. That's not even an
exaggeration. I'm at the point where 42 degrees is pretty normal feeling
though, you just get used to the heat and sweating disgustingly. I don't care
what anyone says, dry heat is still heat and you sweat and feel gross just as
much!

Unfortunately I think that might be all... We are going to meet
he new mission president this week and I hear that he is amazing! So exciting!

Also, I contacted a man who lived in Sarnia the other day!!! So
cool. Hes been in Port Huron! He's from Columbia, but he moved to Canada to
work but then moved back to Spain just recently while he applies for residency
in Canada. He used to meet with missionaries and really liked it, he just never
could meet with them more because of work. Hopefully we can meet with him
because that'd be great.

Also, D and J, our menos activos are really progressing and they
are letting us do a noche de hogar each week in their house and also, J has
agreed to come on lessons with us! Those are really big steps for them!!!

I'm feeling really blessed lately. Sometimes you have downs in
the mission, but the ups like this make it all so worth it!